Where would you expect to find the oldest trees in Michigan? For that matter, how would one even know if they were the oldest?

The answer is, no one does know...at least they haven't successfully figured that out yet. Sure, they can pinpoint a good number of Michigan's oldest trees, but when it comes to THE oldest, no one has come up with a definite way to tell.

For now, what the agriculturists and dendrologists have surmised, is that some of Michigan's oldest trees are found in the famous limestone cliffs of Fayette, a tourist ghost town in the Upper Peninsula...and they aren't even magnificent or regal.

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They are a group of white cedars that jut thru the limestone; parading on the edges of the cliff and popping right thru the cliff walls. Scientists estimate the age of these gnarled trees at approximately 1,000 - 1,400 years old and are believed to be the oldest living trees in Michigan. Obviously, a tree doesn't have to be gigantic to be the oldest.

According to Mlive, the trees “sprouted centuries before Europeans settled North America and (are) likely dating back to the era of the vanished Hopewell indigenous culture.”

Many of us have visited Fayette, but did you realize you were possibly in the presence of Michigan's oldest trees? Take a look at the photo gallery below...

The Oldest Trees in Michigan

MORE 'OLD' MICHIGAN:

America's Oldest Still-Operating Depot, Jackson

America's Oldest Still-operating Grocer is is Michigan

Michigan's Oldest, Still-Operating Church

 

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